Because Mommy Needs a Break

Cuddle Bug went down for his afternoon nap a few minutes ago. He's testing his boundaries and has recently taken to bossing everyone around - "Mommy sit!" "Mommy take it!" "No! Bad Daddy!"

In a few minutes I'm heading out the door for a 90-minute massage! And needless to say, I'm looking forward to it. But that does occupy my "me-time" during Cuddle Bug's nap. So no stitching to report on today.

But in stitching-related-blog-world news: Kim (is that everyone's name? It sure is a pretty name, though!) at Stitch Pink is giving away all the makings of "Where There is Life" from LHN. All you have to do is go visit the blog and leave a comment on the give-away entry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but of course I would feel mildly unworthy if I won it!

Well I'm off for that glorious massage!

A Warm Welcome

Today Michele posted the nicest welcome to me over at her blog X Marks My Spot! She is really too sweet! The mention drew some readers over here today and while the idea of others reading my blog did make my heart race a little, it was also very exciting.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful feedback! I so appreciate all the positive comments and support! Michele was right - the cross-stitching community is very warm to newbies and I'm glad I started this!

I didn't get any stitching done today. I have a meeting at my church tonight so I spent my afternoon doing some reading to get ready. DH has promised to go out with me Saturday for some linen, though! I am really looking forward to giving it a try!

It's Not Terrible

I've been admiring all these cute little scissor fobs I see all over the stitching blog world. Today I decided to undertake one of my own. I used a freebie design from The Floss Box and stitched up a front and back. Originally I wasn't going to do it as a little biscornu, but I decided to make things a little more interesting. I finished a biscornu a few weeks ago and it was much easier than I thought it would be. But doing one on such a small scale was a little more difficult since the extra fabric bunches a little more at the corners. And I under-stuffed it a bit. But I'm proud of the result since it was my first scissor fob and only my second biscornu.

Mini-biscornu scissor fob stitched on 18 count white aida with DMC floss.
Chart available here (the 7th pattern).

Doing such a small design really emphasizes all the little holes in aida. I'm even more anxious to give linen a try now. I'm hoping to get some this weekend and stitch a small freebie Michele sent me to try it out. I've never stitched over two, so it may take a bit of adjustment. But I know the finished product looks so much tighter and cleaner on linen than on aida.

I've also been doing this technique Michele told me about called "railroading." She warned me it might slow down my stitching, and it definitely has. But there's no denying my stitches are straighter and the threads are lying parallel to one another making for better fill. It's worth the extra time it takes to complete a project!

New Goodies!

I woke up this morning fairly convinced I should delete yesterday's entry and hold off on this whole blog thing until I had something impressive to show everyone - and let's face it, that could take decades! But I got the most wonderful feedback from Michele over at X Marks My Spot in an email this morning. She has been kind enough to email back and forth with me for a few weeks now, answering all my questions and giving me a lot of support and information. And this morning she said wonderful things about my new blog and has convinced me to press on!

Yesterday I got 3 new charts in the mail from my LNS ( a place I've actually never stepped foot in). These are the first charts I've ever purchased outside of kit form. I've only ever been to Michaels and JoAnns for cross-stitch supplies, but Michele talked me into branching out. And, since I still don't have the guts to go visit a shop in person, I ordered the charts online. My heart was aflutter when they arrived yesterday!

"Peach Tree Cottage" from LHN, "Gingerbread Cottage" from CCN, and "Have Faith" from Elizabeth's Needlwork Designs

(Please forgive the poor lighting. It's overcast and snowy here today. I couldn't get good lighting inside so I took them out to the back porch, and that was only a little better)

I'm not ready to start these just yet. I want to work them on linen like they call for and I have no experience stitching on linen. So I'll put them aside until I've done a few small projects on linen to test the waters. But they are so lovely, it makes me anxious to get to work!

I need a user-picture. It seems like many people use pictures of their work for their user-pic. I feel like I don't have anything suitable for that. Maybe I can find a small project for that purpose.

Feeling Fearless

Today I'm feeling fearless. I had the most beautiful weekend and I am feeling so uplifted today. As a result, I've gained the courage to do something I have been considering but have been intimidated to do: Start a Blog!

So here I am. I'm going to start this as a blog about my adventures in the wonderful world of cross-stitch. I'm a little nervous and very intimidated to share my work on the internet, but I'm being fearless! Not that I think anyone is actually going to read this (who knows), but I guess I'll start by introducing myself.

My name is Kim and I am as green as they come in terms of my experience cross-stitching. I took up the craft shortly after Christmas 2007, and I was hooked from the very first stitch I crossed! It's tedious, time consuming, good fun! As you can imagine though, it being only the end of February 2008 - I have completed very few projects. I'm still learning a great deal. I'm very slow and I do more than my fair share of frogging, but I enjoy the quiet time. As a full-time mom of a crazy toddler, I'll take any peaceful quiet time I can get. And cross-stitch is the perfect activity to fill those quiet hours during nap time or after Cuddle Bug has gone "nigh-night."

As of today, I have completed the following projects:

• Noah - Learn-a-Craft kit stitching completed Dec. 29, 2007
• Sister - Bucilla kit designed by Anne Keenan Higgins completed Jan 1, 2008 finished in a frame
• Peace of God - Dimensions Gold Collection kit completed Feb 1, 2008 finished in a frame - see picture below
  
• Biscornu Design - The Floss Box freebie completed Feb 7, 2008 and again Feb 15, 2008 first one finished as a biscornu ornament
• Quaker Hedgehog - The Workbasket freebie completed Feb 18, 2008
• Cat freebie - unknown completed Feb 21, 2008

So that's all the experience I actually have - not much and all of it was done on aida with either kitted cotton floss or DMC cotton floss. "Peace of God" is my favorite piece. It was actually a little too ambitious for only my third project and I intend to back away from such elaborate pieces for a while now. But I was proud of the finished piece considering my lack of experience.

I'm hoping to use this blog as a way to record my trials and tribulations as well as my achievements in this craft. "Stitchful Thinking" is the perfect name for this task since I spend a lot of time visiting blogs of more experienced cross-stitchers - admiring their work and wishing to someday be as skilled and talented as they are.

I have admired Michele and her blog X Marks My Spot. She calls herself a "novice" (and compared to many other stitching bloggers out there I guess she is) but she has provided me with a great deal of help and inspiration - teaching me terms and methods and pushing me to try linen instead of aida (which I will very soon). She wasn't too intimidated to start her blog. I figure I might as well get my feet wet too.